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CORD Online Feature

As I write this, I am looking forward to having a wonderful time with friends and colleagues at our annual employee Christmas party. Events like this are an important part of forging a community. Even the ancient philosopher Plato advised communities to eat together, going so far as to recommend communal meals be a constitutional requirement for cities.

Melissa Ratter and Sara Allman made their room a home and became friends in the process.

Melissa and Sara share a love for bright colors that manifests itself all over their room

One student’s story of figuring out how to make a home in a cold, bare dorm room with a complete stranger.

As I turned the doorknob and walked in, I stared at the room I would be living in for the next nine months—or possibly four years—of my life. I was greeted by undecorated white walls, empty drawers and closets, and a stack of naked bunk beds. This is supposed to be my home?

Sabbath afternoon at the Nazario’s builds friendships for a lifetime in a home for all to enjoy. Students love the food, too.

Nearly every Friday night Kathy Fogg whips up a large batch of cinnimon and caramel rolls to share with a houseful of students.

For many Union College students, finding ways to make Union a home keeps them coming back each year to graduate. But for Nathan Huggins, finding a place like home is what brought him to Union.

Stationed at Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nathan wanted to spend the Sabbath hours with people who shared his new faith. He had recently started attending an Omaha area Adventist church, but his search for a Friday evening vespers service led him to make the drive to Lincoln.

It is a miracle really, when we think about it, how people meet, how lives merge, how a home is made; the journey, the love, the promises that make it so.

A house, well, a house is a different story all together. A house can be made relatively quickly. The process is fairly straight forward. Get the supplies. Get a crew. Hammer. Sweat. Work hard. Work really hard. And then, there it is, in a matter of months if all goes well.

Carlson decorates her home with beauty and meaning that tells her family's story.

Home. A small word. Two consonants. Two vowels. Yet this humble word matters. This word counts. It can conjure up a million different images and evoke a thousand different feelings in all of us. Familial abode, physical space, or emotional solace; it connects us to what matters. For Kendra Carlson, who claimed the whole west coast as home growing up, this word has since come to evoke something much more specific. These days, a renovated old house in Lincoln, Neb., is the hub from which Carlson’s world emanates.

Byard Parks, his wife, Ania, and their sons, Samuel and Elijah, enjoyed a trip to the olive oil factory on Christmas day 2012. The plant squeezed 11 liters of oil out of 70 kilos of olives the family picked that morning.

Byard Parks and his family enjoy meals like this typical Turkish spread of fruit, cheese, olives and other delicacies.

Have you ever tried to picture Heaven—to truly imagine the sights, sounds and feelings that will come with finally getting there? For Byard Parks ’92, Heaven is not some gold-plated, shimmery idea, it is a real place filled with laughter, music and the warmth of unique people sharing their experiences together. Heaven is home, and for a world-traveler like Parks, home is a sacred, treasured place—a place to create, to connect, to protect.

Minimalism. For most people, the word conjures up images of modern apartments with sparse decor. But for Union College graduate Lorilee Ross Lippincott ’03, minimalism is a way of life that stretches beyond modern decorating.

“For my family, minimalism means living intentionally,” she explains. “Technically, the term means buying and having fewer things. But we’ve taken an approach to minimalism that allows us to have fewer responsibilities and expectations in the negative sense of the words.”

Dean '68 and Sherri Johnson ('69) Fandrich built their business Sutter Place Interiors around partnering with clients

For Dean ’68 and Sherri Johnson (’69) Fandrich, helping people create the perfect home has become far more than a way to earn a living.

Even though their business is to design and furnish home interiors, forty years of business—and before that at Union College—taught Dean and Sherri Fandrich that relationships are what matter both in business and in life.

Harrison Smith is one of the students enrolling in the new emerging media emphasis, exploring new ways of connecting with audiences.

Harrison Smith likes computers. In fact, that’s what he decided to study when he arrived at Union College a couple of years ago. But through his job at a popular music blog he discovered that instead of learning the language of machines, he’d rather use them as tool to connect with people.